After a long wait, teachers of non-government colleges in Meghalaya will soon be paid a contributory provident fund.
The Meghalaya High Court today directed the State government, Board of Trustees and the Education Department to immediately embark on the exercise to create a Centralised Provident Fund Account in any nationalised bank by executing the required agreement with the bank in order to make the account operational.
“This exercise is to be completed within a period of two months from the date of this order,” the division bench of Justice Wanlura Diengdoh and Justice B Bhattacharjee said in an order passed today on a writ petition filed by the Meghalaya College Teachers’ Association (MCTA).
The High Court also asked the State government to file a compliance report on expiry of the two months’ period. The matter will be taken up again at a hearing on April 8.
Under the Centralised Provident Fund for all non-government schools and colleges in the State, contributions would have to be made by employer and employees to the fund. A Centralised Provident Fund Account is required to be created by the State government in a nationalised bank for this purpose.
During today’s hearing in the High Court, MCTA lawyer R Mazumdar told the court that the main grievance of the MCTA is with regard to the non-implementation of the provisions of the Meghalaya Non-Government School and College Employees Centralised Provident Fund Scheme Act, 1969.
He also stated that the State government has till date, failed to maintain the Centralised Provident Fund in any ‘scheduled bank’ as defined in the Meghalaya Non-Government School and College Employees Centralised Provident Fund Scheme Act, 1969.
Under the Act, a scheduled bank is a nationalised bank that has entered into an agreement with the government to deal with the provident fund of aided educational institutions in Meghalaya.
In the case involving the college teachers, though the Meghalaya government claimed that it has implemented the Meghalaya Non-Government School and College Employees Centralised Provident Fund Scheme Act, 1969 in letter and spirit, for which a notification dated May 29, 2023 in this regard was brought out, there is no indication whatsoever that such agreement or Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was ever executed by the State government with any nationalised bank.
In fact, as per the notification dated May 29, 2023, the Meghalaya Non-Government School and College Employees Centralised Provident Fund was constituted and subsequently, the by-laws of the Central Pension and Provident Fund Scheme in this regard were also approved by the Board of Trustees.
However, such by-laws have not been registered till date. The situation as it stands today is that the contributions of the employer and subscriber are still being deposited into a savings bank account which is not in keeping with the relevant provision of the Meghalaya Non-Government School and College Employees Centralised Provident Fund Scheme Act, 1969.
The MCTA lawyer has, therefore, told the High Court that if a direction by the court is issued upon the State government to create the Centralised Provident Fund Account in any nationalised bank, the grievance of the members of the college teachers’ association would be alleviated.
In response, Advocate General Amit Kumar told the court that the relevant plea made by the MCTA in the amended writ petition, have been duly complied with, inasmuch as, the notification dated May 29, 2023 has been issued and the Board of Trustees have also been constituted.
Kumar also said that at this point of time, the High Court can issue a direction to the Board of Trustees to pursue the matter of execution of the agreement with any nationalised bank for creation of the Centralised Provident Fund Account.
